Dillon room, Blair House (Photo: Carol Highsmith/Library of Congress)
Please note that this program is a lecture about the Blair House and not a tour.
Blair House may be modestly scaled compared to its grander neighbor across Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House, but it’s a place filled with history. Its guest book is filled with notable names including Queen Elizabeth II, Charles de Gaulle, Vladimir Putin, Hosni Mubarak, Nelson Mandela, and Margaret Thatcher. It has hosted special events including Inauguration Day activities and state funerals, was the site of an assassination attempt on President Truman, and houses an important collection of American art and decorative objects.
Managed by the U.S. Department of State, Blair House (which is actually four interconnected townhouses) has long been an elegant and welcoming setting for international diplomatic hospitality. Most of the public, though, never gets a glimpse of what goes on beyond its imposing Greek Revival entrance portico. Join curator Chadance Shierman for an illustrated lecture in which she covers the intriguing history of “the president’s guest house” and highlights its recently restored interiors furnished with important cultural heritage collections, including a rare portrait of Lincoln painted from life during the Civil War and 18th-century hand-painted Chinese wallpaper acquired during the Kennedy administration.
